After lashing out at the SuperSport Series for being too dreary, I was really looking forward to the MTN40 to bring some excitement back to the local cricket scene. Six matches have taken place and I’m still waiting for something to catch my attention. Without sounding like a cynic, the format of the new domestic limited overs tournament is just awful.

In theory, reducing the number of overs is a good idea – that’s why so many people watch 20 over cricket, right? So, well done to Cricket South Africa (CSA) for recognizing that nobody can sit through 100 overs, particularly of domestic cricket, and giving us only 80 overs to endure instead. But why have they opted to still start the matches at 4.30pm? That means play is unlikely to end before 10.30pm in front of largely empty stadiums, because, let’s face it, very few people want to watch cricket in the middle of the night. If they started at 2.30pm and ended by 8.30pm, dinner and drinks after the match would still be on the cards.

The rationale for starting the matches later is that there is more time to attract a crowd, as people could get to the cricket after work. That hasn’t proved too successful with not more than a few hundred people attending the first game at the Wanderers and not too many more at the rest of the matches. Perhaps the real way to entice cricket lovers and attract new supporters is to take away the artificial cricket that gets played in this competition.

They can start with the power plays. The fielding restrictions have been made even more confusing and ridiculous this season. All three power plays now have to be taken before the 36th over, which only makes a difference when a team is crawling along in their chase and keeping wickets in hand in the hope they can launch an attack in the power play. Now that blitz will have to come five overs earlier. The ten over power play still exists as it always has, but the two five over power plays each have their own little rule. The first one allows three fielders outside the ring and the second four. This complicates an already intricate game and if CSA hope to gain new supporters, this is not the way to do it.

Then there’s the 12th man. Gone are the days when all he used to do was bring on water bottles and occasionally fill in as a fielder when someone had to answer the call of nature. Now, he can bat and bowl as well. Cricket worked just fine when only 11 players could participate in the game and the “super sub” concept was tried and rejected at international level. This is not an innovation, it’s trying to resurrect a corpse that most of us were pleased to see buried.

All these changes have been made to prepare local cricketers for one day internationals (ODIs), according to Gerald Majola. How? Majola referred to the fact that there has been talk of changing ODIs to 40 over contests but if that’s going to happen, it’s a long way from being instituted. Then Majola went on to say that if ODIs remained 50 overs an innings, the MTN40 could serve as a combined ODI and T20 preparation. I’m not buying that.

Arrival of the Poms

The competition probably hasn’t been helped by a few one sided contests. Two of those have involved the Lions, and, as usual, the men from the Highveld were on the wrong side. They made a decent start to their campaign, scoring 286 for six against the Cobras, but Andrew Puttick and JP Duminy’s centuries made light work of the run chase. Then, the Lions looked like kitty cats against the Eagles. They conceded 286 runs and were bowled out for as paltry 182.

Some of the other teams have had closer contests. The Warriors and the Dolphins match, which saw Lonwabo Tsotsobe take four wickets in the Dolphins’ chase was decided by a nail-biting 13 runs in favour of the Warriors. The Titans and the Eagles also had a close game, with just 14 runs separating them. There’s still a way to go in the tournament, so here’s hoping it gets more interesting. If it doesn’t, there’s always the England series to look forward to.

The Poms arrived last week and are safely ensconced in Bloemfontein as they prepare for the T20s and one day series. But the war of words has already begun. This time, it was former England captain Michael Vaughan who haled out the ammunition first. He accused Jonathan Trott of being disloyal after Vaughan spotted Trott “celebrating” with South African players after last year’s Test series.

Vaughan went on to say that he had seen Trott patting some of the South Africans on the back after they won the series. If Trott had added a snide comment along the lines of “Well done for beating the imperialists” then maybe Vaughan would have had point but to moan about Trott patting some of his old friends on the back is nothing short of immature. Luckily for Trott, Andrew Strauss is confident that the former Cape Town man is committed to the Three Lions. Whether Trott receives the same hostile reception as Kevin Pietersen did remains to be seen, but the best way to welcome an old countryman home may just be to give him a good smack on the back in return.

Is Firdose on the money or was she expecting too much? Leave all your comments on the domestic cricket scene below!

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